Corps Southwest Coastal Study

[Smalls]

Anyone else seen this? Apparently the Corps is having meetings about this. The restoration part of this looks promising, but, as with everything government, it has a pretty lengthy timeline.

The biggest firestorm is in response to the first part of this, which may involve some eminent domain action.

If the link doesn't work, just google "AppE-RealEstatePlan" and it will be the first link.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...duGXtgI1Efslbg

[BGcoreg]

I saw it, found it interesting.. But would suck for who leases unless they still have access to it. I didn't read the whole article though, might've missed some details

[B-Stealth]

Smalls, where's the cliff notes for this thing man?

[B-Stealth]

I was a little worried about the Piping Clover habitat but I found that on page 58.

Them nesting Clovers are serious business.

[evis102]

I think it's great. Land owners see no problem putting gates across public waterways. I think the government should take every bit of marsh with tidal flow in all of south Louisiana and manage it as the public natural resource it is.

[Smalls]

Haha, I will try and post something alittle better when I'm sitting at a computer and not on my phone, but I'll give this for now. I've read through it a few times, and while this is part of a much larger report that I have not read, I feel I can at least give a brief synopsis.

This Appendix is part of the larger Southwest Coastal Louisiana Feasibility Study, which was completed to analyze the coastal flood damages and ecosystem degradation in SWLA. So, naturally, this included economic and ecological aspects. There are 2 major parts to this Appendix E: the National Economic Development (NED) storm damage reduction objective and the National Ecosystem Restoration (NER) components.

The NER portion is basically the Southwest Coast portion of the 2012 Master Plan. CPRA is the non-federal sponsor, so it makes sense that they would just take that portion and apply it here.

The NED portion of this study provides options for protecting residential and nonresidential structures.

For residential structures, there are two programs, Voluntary and Involuntary. There are certain criteria that must be met for the Voluntary Program, and if met, an owner can apply for the program. The program will fund construction for raising the structure above the projected FEMA flood elevation in 2075. Over 4500 structures have been identified for the Voluntary Program.

The Involuntary program identified nearly 400 structures that must either be raised or destroyed as they have been deemed potentially hazardous to the surrounding communities. If the owner does not wish to have the work done, they will have to sell the property. If they do not, eminent domain will he invoked, and the owner will be paid fair market value.

That is the portion most have an issue with, and is also being misconstrued. I've seen people say over 5000 homes could be seized via eminent domain, which is not true.

The Involuntary seems extremely unfair to the people that have lived in these areas all their lives. "Either raise your home, or we are taking it" is the message.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by evis102

I think it's great. Land owners see no problem putting gates across public waterways. I think the government should take every bit of marsh with tidal flow in all of south Louisiana and manage it as the public natural resource it is.

Problem is, the state does not have the funds to properly manage the land they own now. No way they could manage the thousands of square miles of marsh that your proposal would entail, in addition to the lands they currently own.

As much as I dislike all of that marsh being privately owned, the truth is that it is better off in private hands than in the governments hands. They could not provide the management attention that those lands would need.